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The Magnificent Moscow Underground

rense.com — And you thought Moscow looked great aboveground?

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  • jasonhe, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21Oh my. Those panaromas kinda remind me of those funhouse mirrors.
    • Aidenag, on 10/12/2007, -26/+21if you put some card tables and slot machines inside those halls, it would be just as nice looking as the bellagio lol.. man that is impressive work, would only see that here in casino's or concert halls. and even then, they arent up to that craftsmenship..
    • Ireland, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Underground
    • gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -17/+22"And you thought Moscow looked great aboveground?"

      no... I really didn't :-s
      However, the Moscow underground does look pretty neat :D
    • szelij, on 10/12/2007, -32/+5Am i the only one who thinks thats a waste of GREAT commercial space? Don't get me wrong...it's a great underground...
    • Abduladu, on 10/12/2007, -8/+7@szelij
      "Am i the only one who thinks thats a waste of GREAT commercial space?"

      Nope, you aren't the only one. These are the areas where the actual metros come in. Closer to ground level at nearly all metro stations are 'retail' areas with dozens of small shops selling just about anything from food to watches.

      But yeah--Russians know their metros. Moscow is definitely the best, but there are also great stations in St. Petersburg, Yekateringburg, and a few other large cities.
    • whisk3rs, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6And here are many behind-the-scenes photos, in Russian, unfortunately for those who do not speak it:

      http://russos.livejournal.com/
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16World's fanciest nuke shelter.
    • masterchan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9"World's fanciest nuke shelter."
      Don't mod this guy down. Parts of the Soviet metro system were actually designed to be used as a bomb shelter in case of a nuclear standoff. I've used the metro in Moscow and St.Petes and they go pretty ridiculously deep.

      From Wikipedia:
      "The beginning of the Cold War led to the construction of a deep part of the Arbatskiy line. The stations on this line are very deep and were planned as shelters in the event of nuclear war."
    • figvam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I wonder why so few people are on these photos, must be really early in the morning or late in the evening - Moscow's metro is pretty crowded during the daytime, especially in the central area.
  • p9s50W5k4GUD2c6, on 10/12/2007, -21/+7Not a bad pic either from this site's main page (funny): http://www.rense.com
  • cheztir, on 10/12/2007, -15/+8That's just amazing.
    • sanman, on 10/12/2007, -11/+7Wow, this is more gorgeous than the Mines of Moria in LOTR! :)

      Soviet-era projects truly produced some unique engineering marvels.
  • D4r7h3v1l, on 10/12/2007, -107/+32In Soviet Russia, comment buries you!
    • bayonetblaha, on 10/12/2007, -25/+54that's so ***** annoying
    • mymoustache, on 10/12/2007, -19/+25i laughed.

      smirnoff is lame, but that joke is comedy gold.
    • toosas, on 10/12/2007, -13/+8but actually it was that way. a wrong comment in a wrong place would at least get you to syberia..
      my grandparents had a chance to feel it
    • wynno, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Why bury this comment goofballs? Smirnoff was funny.
  • TheSavageNation, on 10/12/2007, -7/+32I was just there a few months ago, it was impressive! I then went to Czech Republic where some of the underground was very similar.
  • lazyrussian, on 10/12/2007, -13/+41home sweet home. thank you.
    • TheSavageNation, on 10/12/2007, -20/+16Why are they modding you down? And also my post above.
    • jawadde, on 10/12/2007, -6/+25@theSavageNation : it's normal : every sufficiently large community will naturally spawn a small group that seeks its sole life-purpose in annoying/bugging/harassing the group for no particular reason at all. If you look closely, you will find that every digg article wil have its first few comments modded down rapidly. When the grown-ups log in, the retard-modding is usually undone very quickly
    • 5555, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Or maybe it's because neither of your comments added anything of value, interest, or humour?
    • theone3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Yup. It's all about instant gratification.
    • fAlCoNNiAn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0home sweet home too
  • CypherXero, on 10/12/2007, -10/+11Those photos look like High Dynamic Range (HDR) Probe photos, used to build the light sources. Digg+
    • CypherXero, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3Apparently, people on Digg aren't smart enough to know about HDR Light Probes, so people are modding me DOWN.
    • TracerBulletNPI, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Get over yourself. Me not knowing about "light probes" is not a matter of intelligence. I'm not a photographer. I don't have the money to buy photography equipment so I don't research the new technologies and techniques out there... Thus, I don't know what a light probe is. I still concider myself smart enough...
    • Ibox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3So skippy, WTF is an HDR Light Probe?
  • Chipsandsnacks, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Classy indeed
  • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -6/+24360-degree wide panoramas make it difficult to understand what the real scene looked like..
    • mymoustache, on 10/12/2007, -3/+43you mean what it would look like to you.

      with your two forward-facing human eyes.
    • stonebear, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Yeah, I agree. It would be far more cool if some clever Russian brought us some VR panorama's of such things.

      Many Americans don't know that Russia is more than a wasteland of run-down, utilitarian monoliths left behind by the failed Soviet state. The corporate media shows them little else.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9stonebear, i don't know anyone who thinks that.. russia is known for its cool pear shaped buldings around here..
    • RadiantBeing, on 10/12/2007, -28/+8The Soviet Union threatened the free world, destroyed its economy, killed millions of its own people, starved the rest... Oooooh look! A building shaped like an onion!
    • Ibox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hey lets all get together and go to russia and check it out for ourselves.
  • Chupathingy, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4Wow. Check out the articles on the main page.
    It's the kind of place where conspiracy nuts go to read the articles and fondle themselves.
  • Skywise, on 10/12/2007, -7/+7What are these pictures of? Subway? Shopping areas? Underground pedestrian tunnels?
    • JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Subway. The Term "Underground" is commonly used in europe.
    • JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Gah... I let the edit slip away... Metro is also used.
  • Bloekie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9In Belgium, we had a "Survivor"-like tv-show that started in the Moscow Underground, it looked marvelous.
  • zackz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Beautiful and glad to see there are no AT&T or McDonalds billboards. Wonderful architecture and they don't blow their horns about it either.
    • MetalRemains, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So true. This is the first thing I noticed after looking at these twice.
      Look Ma, no ads!
  • TDot1980, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12MOSKAU! MOSKAU!
    Wirf die Gläser an die Wand
    Russland ist ein schönes Land
    Ho ho ho ho ho, hey
    • JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Moskau -- la la la la la la la la ...

      Ahh the musical Stylings of Dschingis Khan....
  • martinj88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3anyone else see the ad on the front page for E.S.P, psychic and matrix pills.......what the hell is a matrix pill.........and that place looks nice ...reminds me of an expensive hotel
    • Chupathingy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3the bad part is that the articles are about as wierd as the ads. The russian pics are cool, though.
  • hawks5999, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I spent two summers in russia in the mid-90's. Since then I've always held that Moscow is my favorite city in the world... and that is almost entirely the result of the metro (or subway or underground, however you like to call it). You could get anywhere in the city in a few minutes for about 25 cents. And each station was a unique work of art or culture or history.
    • JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4Is the underground a pre-soviet construction? looks like it to me...
    • hawks5999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12a lot of the underground was constructed during Stalin's reign. There are hammers and sickles everywhere in the design. It's constantly in a state of expansion and remodel though. One of the best and main stations has entrances at Red Square and near the Bolshoi theater. If you enter from Red Square you will see a colonnade of sculptures that are military in style and they gradually become more and more civilian and cultural (artists and farmers) as you reach the entrance from the Bolshoi side. It's quite a sight. Pushkin Square is a nice station as well. I think I liked it the best because it was the station closest to McDonald's which after several months of boiled potatoes and boiled meat was heaven.
    • saroth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@JimXugle I believe that they weren't. I think that the Soviet leaders wanted to impress the world.
  • chriswm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@Skywise
    These photos are of the Moscow Subway. And yes I've been there, and it's truly very beautiful, in fact these photos don't even do it justice. They must have been taken in the wee hours of the night, because during the day the subways are just jam packed with people and I've never seen them this empty.
  • thegsa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3MAGNIFICO!!!
  • jon13210, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Not as ornate... but some great panormas including Quicktime VR of the Paris Metro...
    http://metrorama.free.fr/
  • Kamino, on 10/12/2007, -15/+2In mother Russia, the metro rides you.
    • JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2In Mother Russia, Comment Buries other digg users.
  • chriswm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Oh, also my friend who lives in Moscow said that during wartime, the subways were used as bomb shelters and since the entrances to most subway tunnels were inconspicuous, an attacking army wouldn't have a clue of the subway's existence.
  • Bloekie, on 10/12/2007, -14/+5Now tell me that communism is all bad?
  • cashcashcash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4those with access to a 3D program - apply the photos as a texture to a sphere, create a camera and center it within the sphere, and have a look around! cool stuff.
  • digger_twit, on 10/12/2007, -13/+4I've been there when I was seven.
  • erkokite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3anyone else see potential for these shots as cylindrical environment maps? Maybe I'll try it later...
  • sleepless, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Yokohama has an underground city that is pretty impressive if not better...
    • dhughes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 I think Montreal, Toronto and possibly one other Canadian city do too, and I mean very extensive such that where you can live and work there without going outside.

      It's getting to be a common thing to do in large urban areas in the rest of the World.
  • mikebeauchamp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Really makes the subways here in North America look like *****... oh wait they are.

    • otherland, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4That's only because of the people that use them. Not as if tons of money weren't invested in them.
      For example the golden days of the NYC subway was decades ago when they did look like palaces for the public.
    • mbrane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7High quality public transit is heresy against the great automobile god, and as such cannot be tolerated.
    • otherland, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1"High quality public transit is heresy against the great automobile god, and as such cannot be tolerated."

      Except in places like Manhattan where a car is just really impractical, the subway is king... but even then the NYC subway stations that use to look nice were ruined by the trash that abuses them, uses them as a place to prey on commuters or even as a toilet...
    • dhughes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ mikebeauchamp Nope, there are several, here's the biggest (in Canada anyway).
      .
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_city_%28Montreal%29
  • NoOneButMe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Looks so much better then Grand Central Station or Penn Station does In NYC.
  • slythfox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Took me a second to realize the pictures were taken using a 360° camera. Looks nice. Such long halls...
  • Niloc0, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4Interesting but I'd really have liked some more info on this, such as when was it built? Pre-communist era? Looks more than a bit opulent for the communist sensibility, in fact I'm surprised they didn't denounce it as decadent and tear all this down.

    These days my question would be "where do they get the money to maintain this?" give all the economic problems Russia has had both during and post communism. I know the economy is better there now but that's a very recent development.
    • chipset, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Economic crisis in Russia is propaganda. of US government.
  • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6The Moscow subway was built in Soviet Russia as a showpiece of how great Moscow and Communism was to the rest of the world. As such, it wasn't actually used by people except a few high level apparatchiks. The average comrade probably had to ride a rickety old East German bus.
    • dooraque, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Oh, come on.
    • ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Actually, it WAS used by the people. The rich guys and such used their limos.
    • chipset, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5No, in fact, metro is used very commonly by people of all range. It is extremely cheap and comfortable way to travel. From what I remember when I was living there, prices on metro for infinite rides (just entrance into system) were close to one dollar, which is less than 1.5 dollar for bus ride. Bad thing is that you have to ride to the closest metro station using bus.
    • Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"The Moscow subway was built in Soviet Russia as a showpiece of how great Moscow and Communism was to the rest of the world."

      Probably not, as it was pretty hard to even visit Russia back then, and they were hardly much into tourist attractions during these times. :-p Also, since this is not a too well-known fact, that's also a sign to the contrary. No, I think it was rather to give confidence to their *own* people in that their government was doing a good job for the people.
  • goffy59, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3Ya im a random digg user, i like to mod people down because they said they liked the pictures. Yeah who ever modded the above people down deserve to die. Thats ***** rediculous. All they said is they liked the pictures and how they compare to other places. Well ***** you digg. I hate ***** clicking show comment all because some ***** peice of ***** didint like what they had to say. I beleive you mod someone down for saying something offensive or because they are off topic. Yes, I'm on topic, but im also offensive. Either way, alot of the users here are ***** idiots.
    • goffy59, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2Oh to add, im talknig about the first 2 comment in case you havnt noticed. Humorous jokes making fun of russia is pretty foolish. Considering they used to be a very very big world power. I dont know about now. I also have a friend from russia, and I beleive most kids that are american dont know what the ***** they are talking about.
  • swyterw, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3For those who live in/have visited Moscow:
    Is there a graffiti "problem" in the underground? How prevalant are security guards?
    • thebirdfam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4when i was there in may this year, i didn't see any grafitti on the trains i was on. that's not to say it doesn't exist, but it wasn't that prevelant even in most of moscow. in fact, moscow even seemed rather "clean" (except for the smog) w/ very little litter around.
    • chipset, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was living in Moscow for a week -- haven't seen anything like that. Graffiti here is more popular on urban walls, such as: factories, buildings, especially those of forgotten type.
    • redeemed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The absence of Graffiti is quite striking, I know Muscovite's are quite proud of the Metro and it is usually crowded so that would discourage some. As long as you avoid rush hour it is the best way to travel around the city.
  • thebirdfam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6these photos look an awfully like the ones taken by a photographer named Bee Flowers and are in a photo book by this artist. just sayin'...
    http://www.beeflowers.com/Metro/
    • exabytes18, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Um... they are the same pictures, except Bee's pictures have copyright notifications on them. Hmmmmm...
    • apflwr3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2From the Reese.com disclaimer--


      "FAIR USE NOTICE. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, politica, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. "

      Would be nice if they bothered to credit the photographer.
    • tapir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nice as it would be, given some of Mr Rense's views, I wouldn't be too surprised either. After all, he does have a few disingenuous views on the world. Yeah, I'm biased against his politics, but that doesn't excuse lifting of others' work without acknowledgment.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Rense
  • o0unknown0o, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7One word, Amazing!
  • Purposeless, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4In the tech section...why?
    • steal_apps01, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11In the tech section...because your mom and me where in the tech section LAST NIGHT!


      ...BURN!
  • jonesyhahaha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11why can't New York's subways look like that?
    • dooraque, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7The Great Automobile God... see above.
    • UncommonSense, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9In the United States, empty space equates to wasted space in terms of lost advertisement revenue. As a result, American landscape is tainted with visual pollution.
    • scott1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Making them look like that could fix homlessness problems.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_People
      The russian mole people must be rich homless people(if that makes any sense.)
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4[quote]why can't New York's subways look like that?[/quote]

      Juvenile delinquents like Mark Ecko, the hordes of homeless living in it, and most of all: the massively corrupt MTA.
    • punkrockxtian, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1because good ol' george is blowing your tax dollars in Iraq.
    • duestown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Hey punkrockxtian: Federal tax dollars don't go towards city subways. Get a clue.
  • localzero87, on 10/12/2007, -9/+0*****
  • Ath3us, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Went to moscow last december... fantastic place, really recommend it... and the underground is fantastic - although it was built by Krushchev acting on stalin's orders, and resulted in a couple of hundred deaths...
  • fledglyng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Nice! In 'Pattern Recognition', Gibson mentions in passing how ornate and austere the Moscow subway platforms were, but I had no idea to what extent until now.
  • krokodil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Side-by-side comparison with, say, New York subway would be even more impressive :)
  • exabytes18, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I thought I heard a rumor of there being a second railway underneath the metro. Something to do with the Cold War. :-O
  • jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I see from the photos that they don't have Mexicans in Moscow to spray paint the walls for them.
  • matthewsnape, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1its impressive (ive been their) but it isnt real. It has about the same artistic value of you kids paintings on the fridge, loved by the parents (Stalin et al.) , but no real value. Communist era arcitecture is just the ravings of a mad man. Give me ugly but honest london underground.
  • SpookyET, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It makes MARTA look like the ***** it is.
    • blackomegax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Indeed, and i bet moscow doesn't have a large population of raving lunatic hobos either.
  • euphonic562, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That is one of the most amazing places. That is deffinitly a place I would love to visit.
  • mutant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is great.. Looks amazing, too bad Putin can't take care of the rest of his country. People are fighting for work, chechen terrorists are killing women and children.

    Look'in good though Putin!! Lookin good!
  • clevedog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Eh i thought this would be about the russian mob or something. oh well, these are nice pics. The soviets took no hesitation to spending a lot on engineering marvels...
  • andreizilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Moscow is an amazing city. It's hard to comprehend the size of it, until you've flown over infinite-stretching urban areas.
  • diggdon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Of course, it's nice, but as a contrarian I'd like to know if anyone can count how many bulbs are burnt out in those images. At Disneyland they replace each bulb 30%(?) into the bulb's lifetime in order to prevent this sort of thing.
    • polumrak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3diggdon, the fact that some of lights aren't on doesn't mean that they're broken. Every bulb works perfectly well but at every moment ~30% of them are switched off.
      If a bulb goes out, another lightens up.
      It's an old system from 30's.
      And stuff doesn't have to change bulbs until 1 am, the hour of closing.
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